flingebunt Reviews

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

Let's make an interesting store with interesting characters boring

[4/10 · 17 May 2024]

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was the nickname for the Special Operations Executive. They along with other special operations groups were formed in WWII following on from the Commando tradition established in WWI and abandoned in the interwar period. They recruited highly motivated personnel who needed to invent special operations warfare, and of course part of the story is that they had to invent this type of warfare.

This movie is not that story. Instead it is a story of a completely unsanctioned mission with a group of people who arrive already skills in arts needed for Special Operations. They have a few silly adventures, they beat the Nazism obvsiouly, and supposedly undertake actions so vital to the war effort that they change the course of the war. I mean, if you apply even a little bit of logic here, this is not true, but they shoot lots of Nazis.

Could have been an amazing movie, but the story is so dull, pedestrian and boring. A bit of over the top actions makes it worth watching. But that is about it.

Unfrosted (2024)

A hit and miss comedy that depends more on if you get into the style or not

[7/10 · 5 May 2024]

So Pop Tarts are an huge American breakfast phenomena. There is probably an interesting story in its creation, but it would probably be a bit banal. So Unfrosted tells the completely made up story of the invention, naming and success of Pop Tarts.

The movie creates a fictional and somewhat unhinged universe for this crazy story to take place in. The movie doesn't just go off the rails, it goes so far off the rails it builds new rails for it to go on and then goes off them again.

Now one issue is the inconsistency in the story. Sometimes the characters step out of the universe and criticise what they are seeing, which in such an unhinged universe, it would have been better for them to double down.

But the real issue is whether you agree or don't buy into the whole experience. If you do, you will love, if you don't, you will hate it.

So if you subscribe to Netflix, watch at least 20 minutes, and if you hate it, turn it off. It is okay. I am not judging you, even if the Machine Learning Algorithms of Netflix are.

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Welcome to Dune light

[4/10 · 26 April 2024]

Dune is a deeply rich and deep story with a range of psychological elements. All of this is hard to capture on film.

So Dune set up most of the story well enough, but Dune 2 really butchers most of the elements of the books. Enough is there to make it worth watching, but it is still just dune light.

The ending is probably the worst part of the movie, removing any realism from the action turning it into a typical Hollywood story. But there are other elements in there as well.

Look, there are some great actors delivering amazing performances, but working with a light script when they deserved Dune 2 not Dune light.

An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th (2024)

Really bad documentary

[4/10 · 19 April 2024]

In 1995 the most deadly act of domestic terrorism against the US government was committed in was. Committed in Oklahoma City. The key perpetrators were caught and convicted.

This documentary tells you a vague story of the context that the bombings took place and provided some vague information about the main bomber, Timothy McVeigh.

But beyond that there is no new information, and so they rush off into conspiracy theories with vague and easily dismissed claims or random tangents that are meaningless.

This is an okay documentary, but it really doesn't provide any depth or insight into the story of this bombing. So give it a miss really.

Jennifer's Body (2009)

A bad movie with good elements

[6/10 · 18 April 2024]

So this story of demonic possession, friendship, teenage relationship and so on has become a cult classic and deservedly so.

While the movie has a lot of very interesting elements and avoids many of the cliches of highschool movies, the problem is that they don't really come together well. In addition the style and nature of the filmmaking doesn't really fit the script.

Which is why it works as a cult classic, because you have to watch it multiple times to understand all the different elements. Ultimately worth a watch even if it isn't going to be an amazing movie experience.

Also, maybe the style, story and elements might just work for you. That sometimes happens too.

The Burial (II) (2023)

Clearly made up court histrionics

[4/10 · 2 April 2024]

So this court drama about a contract dispute between a funeral chain business and a large company trying to buy their company might seem like a dry story, as it really comes down to examination of intentions and actions of parties and examination of whether a they are in breach of contract without an actual signed contract (interesting point of law there).

Instead the movie becomes about race, large corporations, race, family history and so on. Which is all played out with over the top court histrionics where lawyers eulogise during questioning, lead the witness, banter and harass witnesses and other things that wouldn't work in a court of law.

Just a bad movie with some good actors rather than anything worth watching. Especially given the same exploitative practices continue in that and other industries. Everything is just so the writers can try and cram as much commentary about social issues into the story.

The Truth vs. Alex Jones (2024)

Basic information about a well known story (might be worth it if you don't really know anything)

[5/10 · 30 March 2024]

I wanted to watch this documentary to get some more insight into Alex Jones and the Sandy Hook school shooting, but it failed to really deliver. Rather it just covers the basic information that are already well known.

Yes, it exposes some of the lies of Alex Jones, but that is not hard as Alex Jones is (allegedly) continually lying and making bizarre conspiracy theories to sell stuff online. We get a little bit of information about this, but it doesn't expose the whole sorry mess of Alex Jones and Info Wars.

Basically, skip this if you already know the story of how Alex Jones made up conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook School shootings and then was taken to court, didn't cooperate, and then the plaintiffs were awarded a huge settlement.

American Fiction (2023)

Important if poorly written movie (if you see the movie you will get the reference)

[6/10 · 15 March 2024]

In a world where the people behind the scenes are white, university educated and often with middle class backgrounds, who are the ones who decide which book to publish or which movie to make, and also how it is made, authenticity about subjects that are not white and middle class tend to disappear.

This is the theme of the movie when a black university professor whose books are ignored because they are not seen as authentic writes a book to pander to the narrative that the white audience wants.

Funny, and with a lot of middle class angst, it covers a very important topic in a world today where there are more and more mainstream works about African Americans, but where the people behind the scenes are white. It plays the comedy elements well but as an add on to the story rather than just as a story played for laughs.

The problem is that the main character of the story never really grows or goes through a great personal transformation. Like all angry aging middle class people his world view is right and only confirmed as goes through his journey emerging from the other end pretty much the same only with a bit more knowledge. This is despite the opportunity on several occasions to learn and grow.

Maestro (2023)

Pointless story about a famous person

[2/10 · 10 February 2024]

Leonard Bernstein is a famous composer of musicals and conductor of classical music. This is a movie that is not about that, but about a whole lot of pointless unconnected stuff that most people are not going to care about.

Is it that Leonard Bernstein was a really boring person, or that the filmmakers did bother to do much research, or perhaps the movie did have a coherent story, but they decided to edit out the interesting bits? I am not sure, but ultimately the result is a collection of stuff that could be about anyone really.

Sure, Bradley Cooper's performance is brilliant, but that is the only saving grace of this waste of digital space and bandwidth.

Napoleon (2023)

Stupid in a bad way

[1/10 · 22 January 2024]

The story of Napoleon told through a series of letters between Napoleon and Josephine along with a whole lot of stupidly historically inaccurate scenes and the butchering of Napoleon's character.

So not only does Ridley Scott they leave out all the reforms Napoleon brought to France and a lot of Europe, he insists on having the young leader portrayed by a 48 year old actor.

Then of course, instead of showing the highly engaged Napoleon with a quick mind who would put a huge focus on details, deal with people charismatically and be a leader, they have him mumbling his way through life which would have gotten him nowhere at all.

Then the battles are all really Stupid. I mean so stupid that they are just widely inaccurate. If the Battle of Austerlitz,was fought in heavy snow with Frozen rivers, then Napoleon's plans wouldn't have worked as the enemy would have crossed the rivers easily, and his reinforcements wouldn't have arrived on time.

Then there is the shooting at the Pyramids. I mean, what was the point of that. Then at Waterloo they have him fighting from static positions like a chump rather than moving his artillery. Plus, he leads the charge himself, which he just didn't do.

A movie so stupid that even though I double checked everything I saw in the movie it definitely left me dumber than when I started.

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

Pointless & bad movie with a terrible script

[3/10 · 29 November 2023]

This is objectively a bad movie. Here are the reasons

• Oppenheimer was good administrator with enough physics knowledge to be able to bring the theoretical and experimental physicist together, but they don't bother to explain this in the movie
• In fact, most decisions are simply listed without explanation, like if you just make a movie of lists of things that happened, you would have a movie
• Then the script is mostly made up of famous things famous people said thrown in at random times, often in non-sensical ways
• Then of course, Nolan has to tell his movies in a non-linear fashion despite it adding nothing to the story telling
• Even though he adds the hearings into Oppenheimer's security clearance throughout the movie, he still wastes 30 minutes on it at the end only to moralise about something irrelevant rather than address the reality of what happened
• Oh, and the random black and white is pretty stupid too

Bad movie, don't watch. Pretty much all people get from the movie is the emotional beat from the Nolan overpowering soundtrack. Every commentary on the movie reflects on how stupid the movie is.

Dumb Money (2023)

They turn the villains into heroes

[3/10 · 9 November 2023]

The Game Stonks story is about how a investment companies were shorting Gamestop shares as the company lost many and seemed to be suffering. But Keith Gill decided that the stocks were undervalued, and they probably were, and made a wacky online video about how he is investing in Gamestop.

Nerds being nerds jumped on the bandwagon and started buying Gamestop shares, pushing up their value 100 times. This caused the companies that shorted Gamestop to go bankrupt.

So the myth is that Keith Gill is the good guy, but he could have stopped people losing a lot of money if he had just sold early, but does he? Watch to find out.

The other myth is that investors shorting stock are the bad guys. They are not, they are using a collapsing company to make money, yes, but they are not causing the collapse, and it helps keep the financial markets going.

So watch this movie to see how large companies and many ordinary investors lost a lot of money. Too bad they don't tell you that and make the villain out to be the good guy.

Boudica: Queen of War (2023)

Low budget movie that does a lot without a good script

[5/10 · 30 October 2023]

Boudica is the legendary English queen who fought the Romans and mostly kicked butt until her defeat. She is half historical figure, half mythological figure.

This low budget movie combines the history and mythology well, but it is really just lazy writing. A lot is done to make the most of basically having very little money to make the movie work. But what doesn't work is the story.

We don't really get to understand the main character and her personal motivations, and instead the events of history just happen in the movie.

Also disappointing is that it doesn't really bother to show us the landscape. Drone shots are so cheap these days, so the result is a bit disappointing overall.

Watch it on streaming if you want to now more about the mythology of a real historical person.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023)

Outdate movie that wasn't even updated for 2023

[2/10 · 9 October 2023]

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial was a 1950s book and then later made into a movie about a fictional WWII mutiny, which in this movie is updated to action in the Persian Gulf.

OMG, the characters and dialogue are just taken straight from the 1950s, and includes some 1950s pop-psychology that no one would use today.

The original work tied into the 1950s authoritarian attitude that says the boss/commander is always right, and questioning them is wrong.

Yes, there is a great deal of argument around this point, but in the end the movie/book decides to moralise on behalf of the viewer/reader in a way that is laughable.

This was not a good movie or story in the 1950s and is just an embarrassment in 2023.

The Menu (2022)

Mediocre movie without a good payoff at the end

[4/10 · 19 September 2023]

There is this idea that all movies, because they are made by movie makers, are just metaphors for making movies. The Menu is the perfect example of this.

The Chef in this movie is the stand in for the director who gathers together all the people he hates, like reviewers and publishers of reviewers (on the grounds they make or break something when they don't), bad actors, financiers, fan boys, and those who pay money but don't really engage and so on.

The problem is of course the director of this movie is a mediocre director so he is fantasising about having absolute control over people, and getting petty revenge.

Look there is suspense but only the most vague and pathetic social commentary. What's more, the pay off at the end is pathetic, as you would expect from a mediocre director.

Hellstorm (2015)

Pro Nazi propoganda

[1/10 · 13 September 2023]

Okay, so the way to justify war, murder, genocide and other crimes is to turn around and go "Well the other side did a little bit of that too." This is the story of Hellstorm.

It starts with the claim that Germany was a completely destroyed and morally corrupt, randomly claiming that the streets were flooded with pornography and every one was starving, and then along came Hitler who fixed everything up.

Yes, crimes against the German people were perpetrated by the allied forces, especially Russia. Buy this is a documentary that focuses on using that to try and diminish German atrocities.

It is all about using a flood of facts mixed in with continuous opinions designed to make you think certain things.

A must watch for any buddy neonazis out there.

Shadow in the Cloud (2020)

A great but misunderstood movie with a few flaws that don't matter

[8/10 · 7 September 2023]

Okay, so before we start remember this one fact. Gremlins, as they say in the movie, are what people use to blame their mistakes on.

So when you understand this and accept the surrealistic aspect of the story, we get a tight story that builds tension quickly and maintains it while being focused not just mostly on the interior of a plane, but on one person in a ball turret.

Who is this mysterious woman who jumps on a plane at the last minute with a mysterious package. What is following them, and what is causing damage to the plane. Also, what mistakes were made by people that might attract a gremlin.

Yes, some bits don't make sense and some bits are over the top action, but that is okay, if you just go with it and enjoy the action.

Great acting from Chloë Grace Moretz who is intimate with the camera for nearly 2/3rds of the movie and remains the focus for 99.99% of the rest of the movie.

Also, many professional reviews goes on about gender politics as being an aspect of the story, but when has gender politics anything to do with a woman not taking anything from terrible guys? A woman being an badass is just a person being a badass.

Silo (2023– )

What a rip off waste of time

[1/10 · 2 August 2023]

Okay so there are some people, about 10,000 of them, living in a silo underground. They don't know why they are there but the only know, or believe, that they can't leave as it is dangerous outside.

Anyway, this is a great premise for a show where each episode brings in a new revelation and we advance towards a conclusion. But unfortunately the first 2 episodes give some clues then nothing else happens for the rest of the first series until you get to the very end.

I only watched this pointless waste of time because I was hoping for a revelation. You do get one, and you do get one, but it doesn't really make sense.

Here is the trick people, shows built on mystery are good for 1 series, and then fall apart because it gets boring not knowing after a while, and they can introduce new mysteries or often provide lame revelations.

Don't waste your time. Maybe watch the first series then don't bother and anything new is just going to be as dull and as boring as the first one, though probably lamer because they had nothing to say in the first series, so do you think they will have anything useful to say in later ones.

The Last of Us (2023– )

This series is not only bad, it is a waste of time

[2/10 · 25 June 2023]

This much raved about "zombie" tv series based on the game of the same name is just pathetic. There is little to know action, way too much effort trying to make realistic fungi zombies (not realistic at all), and tries to look at society.

But it is really just neo Randian rubbish. All forms of society and organisation in the face of a zombie apocalypse are corrupt and dysfunctional and only the true individualist can survive. Well according to the series but not according to actual studies of people in disasters.

There are stupid bottle episodes, very little action, and very little depth in the story. Seriously, I only kept watching this show because people kept saying it was great. It isn't.

During a zombie apocalypse, do the opposite of this show. Cooperate, trade and organise. People are not going to just let corrupt leaders lead, because that will get them killed.

BlackBerry (2023)

Entertaining but inaccurate

[6/10 · 6 June 2023]

Once upon a time Blackberry dominated the business phone market, especially in the US, while Motorola dominated the personal phone market, and Nokia the international market. Along came the iPhone and pushed them off the, with none of these companies adapting well to the introduction of the iPhone given that it was only projected to take 5% of worldwide phone sales initially and many people questioned that it would do that.

But this movie doesn't tell this story. Instead it crams complex engineering and corporate development stories into little vignettes, ignores the many much more popular options to the iPhone, acts like everyone knew the iPhone was going to overtake the the world. Then ultimately fails to tell the story of the inability to adapt. In fact Nokia had been providing phones with Internet and downloadable apps years before the iPhone, but only the Japanese were really smart enough to do that.

But what they fail to tell us about the failure to adapt is that it impacted on everyone. For Blackberry, they would have had to redevelop their product from scratch and it was too inflexible. While Nokia failed to adapt from management, Blackberry just wasn't able to adapt. Even trying to move their secure email platform from hardware to software so it could become an iPhone app proved impossible.

It is okay, this movie is entertaining enough, though starts off slow, fails to introduce or build the key characters at the beginning, and the ending is too forced.

Could have been a good series or a better shorter movie. Especially given the camera style and content, it is not worth seeing in the movie theatre.

Crater (2023)

Neat little kids SciFi movie

[8/10 · 23 May 2023]

A group of kids steal a rover on the moon to travel to a crater where a secret is waiting for one of them. They will have adventures and face dangers on their way while learning more about the world they live on and the world that their parents or grandparents came from.

The beauty of this movie is it is about kids living in a future that is negative. They learned nothing about the Earth at school, they see no great future for them because their parents and then themselves will be forced into basically bonded labour contracts with unfair conditions that are almost impossible to escape.

Yet the movie ends on a hopeful note, even if they are no revolutionaries. Yes, a lot of the moon stuff and physics is all wrong, but the reality of the feelings and story are important. These are kids and the story is grounded at their level.

Not sure why there are negative reviews. Maybe it is the adults watching what is a kids movies. Maybe it is parents upset that the movie is negative. Perhaps the pacing is too slow for modern kids. Not sure, but still should be better regarded than it is.

Jesus Revolution (2023)

Just Christian propaganda without self-reflection or insight

[1/10 · 16 April 2023]

While this is a well made movie that delves into the rise of the Jesus Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it does so with the belief that Christianity is a real thing and that praying actually works.

There are no characters in this movie, only ciphers for the message. Any flaws are minor and inconsequential and don't reflect the reality of what people are and what people who use the bible to get their message across are really doing.

For example, when alternatives and criticisms are raised to Christianity, they are not addresses, but mostly just dismissed within the structure of the film.

The high ratings of a movie like this on IMDB come from Christians. It won't appeal to anyone who has critical mental thinking ability.

Babylon (I) (2022)

Pretentious and contrived take on Hollywood

[5/10 · 7 February 2023]

This is supposed to be a take on the early days of Hollywood and the transition to talkies and more legitimacy. Unfortunately

• It glamourizes the sleaze
• It treats the worst parts of Hollywood as minor inconveniences
• Treats the minor inconveniences as major issues
• Is more a collection of metaphors and analogies about fame and death
• It is trying to say something significant about something that isn't

I would recommend first watching the recent movie White Noise, which gives a detailed explanation about how we seek fame or to party because of our sense of mortality. This same theme runs through Babylon.

Tenet (2020)

God, this movie is really dumb and badly made

[3/10 · 21 October 2022]

It starts with the possibility of an interesting twist on time travel. But the plot only moves forward through people sit around talking. Meanwhile there is all this action padding out the run time. The action is basically a really dumb spy thriller.

Then it ends up as a conventional time travel story. What is worse, the effects are boring, the logic doesn't make much sense, the plot is poorly executed.

This is Peak Christopher Nolan, in that he loves to play around with time and times lines in his movies, but proves he is not up to the task. It only appears to be a smart movie to dumb people. Give this one a miss.

Sorcerer (1977)

A terrorist, a Nazi hunter, a failed businessman and a criminal who ripped off the mob get into 2 trucks filled with explosives

[5/10 · 28 April 2022]

Based on great source material, including the fantastic French film, Wages of Fear, they up the budget to well add very little to the story.

We start by learning the back stories of 3 of the 4 people who will be important to this story. Not sure why we didn't learn the story of the 4th person....oh, yep he is dead now, but that is okay, there is another person without a back story to be involved.

So we learn a lot about most of the main characters, and boy do we not care about them at all. They should all die horribly. Is that the point. Horrible people will get chances to die horribly?

Anyway, an American oil rig has an accident and they need explosives to cap the well. The only explosives nearby is some sweaty dynamite, which means, if you bump it too hard it will explode.

So they get 4 drives in 2 trucks who have to drive over terrible roads with no help through terrible weather and a couple of crumbly bridges. At no point do they send cars or trucks ahead of behind them to make sure that they are okay. So they have to drive 200 miles with a chance of exploding with no help.

Anyway, some will die, some will live, and you won't care.

Oh, it is a big budget 1970s movie, so you have a lot of slice of life storytelling where they pad the story with lots of background and flavour. But this is like adding lots of delicious sauce to cover up low quality ingredients.

The story we hear is that the movie failed because it opened at the same time as Star Wars. Well maybe, without Star Wars people would have done to see this movie, but it wouldn't have been a big hit. Though it might have been the punchline of jokes like "A terrorist, a Nazi hunter, a failed businessman and a criminal who ripped off the mob get into 2 trucks filled with explosives"